Monday, November 10, 2014

November 10 - The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell

Today’s movie is a courtroom drama with a scene that happens on November 10. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

THE COURT-MARTIAL OF BILLY MITCHELL   

Gen. Billy Mitchell disobeys orders and uses heavier bombs to sink the former German battleship Ostfriesland. For this he is demoted to Colonel and reassigned to a ground job in Texas. After his friend Cmdr. Zack Lansdowne is killed in the crash of the Shenandoah airship and six army planes crash, he gives a statement to reporters critical of the top brasses handling of the air corps. He is court-martialed and gets his friend Cong. Frank Reid to represent him.  To delay the trial he tries to subpoena the President, but refuses an offer to withdraw his statement in return for a reprimand. Reid asks Lansdowne’s widow to testify and she finally does. There she testifies that naval officers asked her not to talk about the fact that the Shenandoah was an unsafe airship. The court reverses an earlier ruling and on November 10, 1925 [1:01:40 to 1:14:48] allows various officers testify that pilots have died due to flying out of date airplanes. Mitchell testifies, but is found guilty and suspended for five years.

A decent biopic. The film holds your interest. A good trial movie.

Day by Day: The Twenties: Volume 2 1925-1929 ed, by Rodney P. Carlisle (FactsOnFile, New York, 2008) p. 687

Producer - Milton Sperling

Director - Otto Preminger

Screenplay - Emmet Lavery and Milton Sperling

Runtiome – 1 hour 40 minutes

Released - December 22, 1955

Starring –

Gary Cooper as Col. Billy Mitchell
Charles Bickford as Maj. Gen. Jimmy Guthrie
Ralph Bellamy as Congressman Frank R. Reid
Rod Steiger as Maj. Allan Guillion
Elizabeth Montgomery as Mrs. Margaret Lansdowne
Jack Lord as Lt. Cmdr. Zachary Lansdowne
Fred Clark as Col. Sherman Moreland
Darren McGavin as Capt. Russ Peters
James Daly  as Lt. Col. Herbert White
Peter Graves as Capt. Bob Elliott
Robert F. Simon as Adm. Gage
Charles Dingle as Senator Fullerton
Dayton Lummis as Maj. Gen. Douglas MacArthur

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014.





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